SurprisesJohn Cassavetes with 7, has more films in the top 1000 than Kazan (6), Lean (6). Coppola (5), Wyler (5), Dreyer (5), Wong Kar-Wai (5), Preston Sturges (5), Polanski (5), Pasolini (5), Herzog (5), Minnelli (5), Jacques Tourneur (4). He doesn’t have that many great films does he, aren’t most about average at best?

William Wyler, with 13 best director and 12 best picture nominations only has 5 in the top 1000, and his greatest (Best Years of Our Lives) is only #122. This should be an all-time top 10 film, perhaps the finest anti-war film ever made.

Billy Wilder, with such original classics as Sunset Boulevard (photo right), Stalag 17, Double Indemnity, and The Apartment, has his light gender-bending comedy Some Like It Hot at #22 just outplace Boulevard (#29) as his highest ranked film; for me it’s about 4th of his.

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner at #46. Not bad SciFi but ahead of E.T., Close Encounters, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, even another and better Philip K. Dick story in Minority Report? It has about 5 minutes of actual futuristic footage, then reverts into a typical detective action film: let’s hunt down and kill the androids/killers one at a time. Well done but hardly a top 50 all-time.

Woody Allen’s admittedly good Manhattan (photo left) outranking best picture winner Annie Hall, and the more complex and rewarding Hannah and Her Sisters. Together, a formidable trilogy, but the seamless weaving together of multiple family stories in Hannah directly inspired Ron Howard’s Parenthood, and a host of copycats.

Where are Coppola’s Tucker: A Man and His Dream and Peggie Sue Got Married? To include Godfather III over these takes an offer someone couldn’t refuse, or perhaps listing the Godfathers together as a trilogy.

Elia Kazan’s top film, On the Waterfront, is only 104th, when imitator Sergio Leone has one higher (73rd, the overblown Once Upon a Time in the West)? ..what are people looking at?

Surrealist Luis Bunuel has 15 in the top 1000, but 7 (and most) in the top 200? He admits to not shooting with a script, and just letting the cameras capture the film that he creates later with editing. Gee, how could you ever tell, as many of his films seem entertaining but pointless overall, especially Un Chien Andelou, perhaps ranked due to Dali’s participation? (it must be art if the guy who once set a stuffed giraffe on fire in a museum was involved.)

My Favorite Ten:
1-Kubrick, 2-Coppola, 3-Wilder, 4-Wyler, 5-Spielberg, 6-Scorsese, 7-Yimou, 8-Lean, 9-Kazan, 10-Bertolucci, John Huston(tie) Just out: Coen Bros., John Ford, Woody Allen, Herzog, Lang, Antonioni, Tornatore, Wong Kar-Wai, Carol Reed, Weir, Welles, Wertmuller Stanley Kubrick for sheer number of top 20 caliber films, same as Coppola, who had more mistakes having done more films. Wilder and Wyler are perhaps the most consistant. Doing just 10 is tough. For me, Welles didn't do enough great films, just a couple, Kane and Ambersons. Same with Ford - Informer and Mister Roberts are my faves.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

[I've yet to see this four-part documentary series on HBO, but I feel strongly enough about this subject that I wanted to post this in advance of the series beginning, and the advanced reviews have been excellent, as well as previous documentary films by these filmmakers - El]

HBO is going to unscramble its premium signal Sunday, though it may not be done in all areas, thus allowing non-subscribers to see "The Alzheimer's Project" part one, at 9-10:30pm Sunday night.
HBO says of the series "A new way of looking at the disease". Click here for the HBO Link, and all four episodes can be streamed from here as well.
My lifetime friend, Charlton McMillan, and his wife Shari Cookson were instrumental in creating The Memory Loss Tapes, the first episode of this four-part HBO series. Shari, who is a multiple Emmy nominee for Living Dolls and All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise, shares director-producer credit with Nick Doob. Charlton, an Emmy winner for Living Dolls, shares editing credit with Nick. Charlton also did some editing work on the second part of the series, Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?Here are two print reviews for the series:New York TimesL.A. Times
A blog review from critic James Bawden
Please either watch or record this and let people know about it. We never know when we will have to deal with this disease either within our families, friends, or within our own minds. Rather than giving money to corporate gamblers, we should be funding cures and care for humanitarian efforts and documentaries such as these.
The Alzheimer's Organization is at http://www.alz.org/

Frank Capra (3): It Happened One Night (34), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (36), You Can't Take It With You (38)

William Wyler (3): Mrs. Miniver (42), The Best Years of Our Lives (46), Ben-Hur (59) - two anti-war filmsBest Years of Our Lives

Wyler has the most directing nominations with 12; Billy Wilder is next with 8 Wyler directed the most picture nominees (13), and winners (3). Wyler has the most consecutive picture nominations (7); Capra is next with 4. Wyler's films have the most total nominations (127) and wins (39).

Wyler directed the most acting nominations (35) and wins (13). Elia Kazan is second with 24 nominees and 9 winners.

Directors with triple wins as producer-director-writer:Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960)Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather, Part II (1974) James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983) Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

Nominations with No Wins:Clarence Brown (6) King Vidor, Alfred Hitchcock, and Robert Altman (5 each) Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, Federico Fellini, and Peter Weir (4 each) - a crime! a better group than those at 5

Frank Lloyd, winner for directing The Divine Lady (28/29), is the only winner whose film wasn't nominated for picture.

Directors with the most Best Picture Nominations:
William Wyler (13), John Ford (9), Mervyn LeRoy (8) Frank Capra, George Cukor, Henry King, Steven Spielberg, George Stevens, all 7 Michael Curtiz, David Lean, Martin Scorsese, Sam Wood, Fred Zinnemann, all 6 Spielberg and Scorsese are still active.

Female Director Nominees:Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties, 76), Jane Campion (The Piano, 93), Sofia Coppola
(Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia became the first U.S. female director nominatedKathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2008) - became the first woman to win a directing Oscar® with this film

Two directing nominations in one year:Steven Soderbergh (2000) for Erin Brockovich and Traffic (the Oscar® winner)

Michael Curtiz (1938), for Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters Clarence Brown (1929/30) for Romance and Anna Christie

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

These actors have appeared in the most Best Picture Oscar® winners, just those in 3 or more:
Frankie Farnum (6): The Life of Emile Zola (37), The Lost Weekend (45), Gentleman’s Agreement (47), All About Eve (50), The Greatest Show on Earth (52), Around the World in Eighty Days (56)
Bess Flowers (5): It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1938), All About Eve (1950), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Note: Bess appeared in 21 nominated films, the most by far. Ward Bond is 2nd with 11.
Wallis Clark (5): It Happened One Night (1934), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939)
Robert Karnes (4): The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), All the King's Men (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953)
Edwin Maxwell (4): All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/1930), Grand Hotel (1931/1932), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938)
All of these were in three each: Irving Bacon, Billy Bevan, Ward Bond, John Cazale, Eddy Chandler, Heinie Conklin, Gino Corrado, Donald Crisp, Harry Davenport, Billy Engle, Pat Flaherty, Morgan Freeman, Clark Gable, John Gielgud, Hugh Griffith, Jack Gwillim, Jack Hawkins, Bernard Hill, Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Kane, Diane Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Lee Phelps, Talia Shire, Joe Spinell, Meryl Streep, Ian Wolfe
Morgan Freeman was in Driving Miss Daisy, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby
Dustin Hoffman was in Midnight Cowboy, Kramer vs Kramer, and Rain Man
Diane Keaton was in Godfather, Godfather II, and Annie Hall
Jack Nicholson was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, and The Departed
Meryl Streep was in The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Out of Africa
Many other famous actors including Laurence Olivier, James Stewart, Peter O’Toole, Gene Hackman, Robert De Niro, and Ben Kingsley were in two each. See the link below.
From Wikipedia - Actors appearing in 2 or more Best Picture winners, 81 in all:
Actors in Multiple Best Picture Academy Award Winners

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

These are my favorite non-English films. Not only is a ranked list like this far too short, but those eliminated are just as good (shown after the top 10), each a classic in its own right. This was done for the "toptenz.net" site, so I was limited to just ten selections. Click a title for the individual film's review at1000 DVDs to See.
Note: Toptenz.net will publish the full article, look for it there, this is the short version.
1. Hero (Zhang Yimou, China, 2002) - Terrific action and script, about three assassins and the King of Q'in. Top grossing film in Chinese history is the best for actor Jet Li and director Yimou, who directed the Olympic ceremonies in Beijing. Required an assistant director just for the dazzling martial arts sequences.
2. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1954) - Lengthy action epic about seven dishonored samurai helping a tiny village defend themselves against a gand of bandits. This b&w classic still looks modern and inspired many other films.
3. Cinema Paradiso (Guiseppe Tornatore, Italy, 1988) - Heart-warming Italian romantic comedy, an homage to cinema. A kid in a Sicilian village grows up under the influence of the town's projectionist, then grows up to be a movie director in Rome. Oscar® for foreign film.
4. Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri, France, 1986) - Released together but in two parts, this French epic is that country's most fully realized epic film, about small farmers in Provence and the importance of water and greed on all their lives. Yves Montand's best part, at the end of his career; the first film features Gérard Depardieu in the title role.
5. City of God (Fernando Meirelles with Katia Lund, Brazil, 2002) - Terrific docudrama look and feel of street violence and gangs in Brazil's worst slum, built for the homeless and given the ironic title. Four Oscar nominations, inlcuding director for Merielles. Visually quoted by Danny Boyle in Slumdog Millionaire, a film obviously influenced by City.
6. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy, 1970) - Classic about the dangers of conforming for selfish reasons, in this case with the Italian fascist government of Mussolini. Jean-Luis Trintingant's best, dazzling cinematography by Vittorio Storraro, led to his being used by Coppola for the Godfather films, which this heavily influenced.
7. Kolya (Jan Sverak, Czech Republic, 1996) - Oscar-winning heart warmer about an aging cellist, played by the director's father Zdenek who also wrote the screenplay, who marries to help a Russian woman emigrate and ends up with a terrific stepson (a great child performance) as an unexpected bonus. Oscar® for foreign film.
8. Salaam Bombay! (Mira Nair, India, 1988) - Nair's first feature film after making documentaries, inspired by and about Bombay's street kids, whose indominable spirit led to this film, the profits of which were used to build centers for orphaned street kids. One of the few works of art that has caused social changes.
9. Chungking Express/Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 1994) - Intended as one film, but cut into two due to length, this is Wong Kar-Wai's crime action classic, a dazzling and hypnotic display of cinematic innovation. Inspired Tarentino's Pulp Fiction, stylistically tame by comparison.
10. Carmen (Carlos Suara, Spain, 1983) - the flamenco dance version of Bizet's classic opera is my favorite dance film and Spanish film. It mirrors the story of Carmen in a dance troupe rehearsing to perform their flamenco version of Bizet's opera. Choreography by star Antonio Gades, who worked with Suara on three dance films.
Without a limit, these would have been in there also:
L'avventura (Antonioni, Italy, 1960)
Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, Italy-France, 1968)
L'america (Amelio, Italy, 1996)
The Lives of Others (von Donnersmarck, Germany, 2007, Oscar® for foreign film.)
Diva (Bieniex, France, 1982)
La Grande Illusion (Renoir, France, 1937)
Good Bye Lenin! (Becker, Germany, 2003)
Nowhere in Africa (Caroline Link, Germany, 2001, Oscar® for foreign film, defeating Hero.)
Zelary (Andres Trojan, Czech Republic, 2003)
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, Russia, 1925, silent)

I'm not sure the point of this list from toptenz.net, because they have French Kiss rated ahead of Silence of the Lambs and Godfather. So do they mean "top 10 film treatments of wine relative to plot or screen time"? The site has clips of quotes, but it didn't say "top 10 film quotes about wine". (Then Silence would certainly be #1, the "liver with chianti" line)
At any rate, I thought the list was interesting, though I'm looking for Big Night (the gourmet meal film), The Big Chill (wasn't that bunch a white wine group?), and Metropolitan (those effete snobs had to be wine connoisseurs as well), or even the poison champagne (really LSD) in Dollars ($). There's also a major French dinner with wine in Apocalypse Now Redux, a scene added in the long version.
Special mention should be made of A Clockwork Orange; each night before the "old ultra-violence", Alex and his Droogs would visit the Corova Milk Bar drink magic drinks (that flowed from the nipples of nude statues) that we assume was psychedelics mixed with alcohol. Kubrick was a genius, especially for transforming good books into either great or at least interesting, controversial films (2001, Clockwork, Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lyndon, Lolita, Eyes Wide Shut)
Still, an interesting wine cult film list, not something you see everywhere. Here it is in countdown order:
10. Silence of the Lambs
9. The Godfather
8. The Princess Bride
7. French Kiss
6. Arsenic and Old Lace
5. The Big Sleep
4. Casablanca3. A Walk in the Clouds
2. Notorious
1. Sideways - winner of six Indy Film Spirit Awards, including picture; Golden Globe winner for Best Comedy or Musical; nominated for 5 Oscars® including picture and director.
For the original post with film clips from each with a wine quote:
Top 10 Movies With Wine
"Viddy this and viddy it well!" - A Clockwork Orange

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Introduction to World's Best Films

We will review (spoiler-free capsule reviews) and list the greatest films in history, wherever and whenever they were produced.

All films in Gold won Best Picture Oscars®. * is a new addition in a list.

Our Top Ranked 1000 Films, all polls, was compiled by taking all film polls we could find, throwing them into a spreadsheet, and gave numeric points in descending order. The result was over 2200 films listed in all, ranked by their relative positions in all the polls combined. This combination of both critics and fans polls should give film fans the most objective list of how films are perceived by the total film community, not just a small group of fans.

Relevant to said mission is the following query which I now put forth to you: wherein this most streamlined and trunkless of transports, boner-inspiring though it may be, wherein are we to reposit our most recently deceased cargo?” - Sin City

Go ahead, make my millenium! - Beetlejuice

I have nothing, I am a river to my people! - Lawrence of Arabia

Hey, senor, how much for the leetul girl? How much for the women? - The Blues Brothers

It's a girl and a midget, 'gidget', get it? - Gidget

I've worked in the private sector, they expect results. - Ghostbusters

Man, that's one big twinkie! - Ghostbusters

I put the grrr in swinger, baby! - Austin Powers

Badges? We don got to show you no stinkin badges! - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Boredom's the first step on the road to relapse - Clerks II

I ain't 'people'! I am a.. 'a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament' - Singin' in the RainIf we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. - Singin' in the Rain (both from Jean Hagen)

..More Quotes

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore! - Network

Lend all men thine ear, but lend few your tongue - Hamlet

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. - Hamlet

Doubt the the stars are fire; doubt that the moon's above; doubt that the truth's a liar; but never doubt my love - Hamlet

I picked a helluva week to give up _____ - Airplane!

You can always pay half the poor to kill the other half. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

The first rule of politics: the ballots don't make the election winner, the counters make the winner. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night - All About Eve

You can still dish it out, but you just can't take it anymore - Little Caesar